The champion for the third year in a row is FC Arkadag, a club founded in 2023, which has won the title of champion of Turkmenistan in every season since its founding.
What makes this story unique is the fact that in three seasons of the domestic championship, Arkadag achieved a performance of 82 victories, without a single draw or defeat. In addition, the club won in all 14 Cup matches, which raised the total domestic score to an incredible 96 victories without losing a point.
At first glance, such figures seem unreal, but the reason for them is not difficult to find. The club was founded on April 1, 2023 by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who was the president of Turkmenistan from 2006 to 2022.
Because of his authoritarian way of ruling, Berdimuhamedov is often described as a dictator, and additional controversy is caused by the fact that from 2022, the president of the country is his son Serdar, who won the elections that international observers assessed as unfair and rigged.
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov still has a strong political influence and holds the office of president of the upper house of parliament.
Arkadag was founded just before the start of the season, which is why the transfer window was extraordinarily extended so that the club could bring in players. Soon, almost all the best football players from the country joined him, which practically eliminated the competition. In addition to all this, there have been serious allegations of match-fixing.
Although Arkadag could compete for a Guinness record due to his series of victories, that institution refuses to recognize this performance precisely because of the aforementioned circumstances.
The real strength of the club is more clearly seen in international competitions. The champion of Turkmenistan plays in the second tier of the Asian Champions League, and this season, after five rounds of the group stage, they still haven’t achieved a victory.
He recorded four draws and one loss, but in the last round against Al Khalidiyah from Bahrain, he has a chance to win a place in the next stage.
Last season, however, Arkadag achieved international success by winning the AFC Challenge League, the third strongest Asian club competition, comparable to the Conference League in Europe.
In the final, he defeated Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng from Cambodia, while earlier he eliminated Kuwait’s Al Arabi and India’s East Bengal.
(Vijesti.ba)
